Mustafa Karatas
@karatasmustafa.bsky.social
PhD student and #FWO fellow at Laboratory of Metagenomics, Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium. Working on environmental surveillance of viruses using #metagenomics #viralmetagenomics
What can wastewater reveal about diseases - and is it really the “Holy Grail” of epidemic surveillance? #WastewaterSurveillance can detect signals from viruses, bacteria & parasites circulating in a population - including cases that may never be reported. #IDsky #EpiSky #PublicHealth #Epidemiology
Clinical PhD opportunity @lshtm.bsky.social through @hpruezi.bsky.social Applications now close on 17th April. Ideal for UK Infection registrars wanting to do a PhD in clinical application of metagenomics in returning travellers. Collaboration with @emcat1.bsky.social & @ukhsa.bsky.social
Job Opportunity at LSHTM: Clinical Research Fellow
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in...
jobs.lshtm.ac.uk
A Tale of Two Lenses: Emergency department indoor-air hybrid-capture metagenomics complements wastewater by adding a human-focused respiratory virus perspective https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.13.26348311v1
Worried your ssDNA virus genomes aren't getting enough love? Now they can, thanks to CRESSENT, a new software package from Ricardo Pavan, @sullivan-lab.bsky.social, and I! 🧬💻🧪 Out now: doi.org/10.1099/mgen...
🚨 New paper in Eurosurveillance - @karatasmustafa.bsky.social We used shotgun metagenomics on indoor air in a Belgian daycare to track respiratory, enteric & skin viruses. 👉 40/42 samples contained human viruses—even when kids seemed healthy! 📄 Read here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41000028/
New paper out! We sampled indoor air for a year in a Belgian daycare and used shotgun metagenomics to track viruses. We recovered many viral genomes of interest. What would you sample next? Read at @eurosurveillance.org @emmanuel-microb.bsky.social, @jellematthijnssens.bsky.social -->
An innovative outbreak detection program that tracks viruses in #wastewater identified the #measles virus in #Houston in early January 2025, before cases were reported. #TailorLabs #saracregeen @miketisza.bsky.social @bcmhouston.bsky.social #TEPHITexas #RiceU @apha.org www.bcm.edu/news/measles...
Another example of how wastewater sequencing is going to positively impact Public Health. TEPHI's Outbreak Detection program shows once more the sensitivity and specificity of agnostic sequencing .... ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2...
Check out our latest paper on how #wastewater can be used to track animal and #zoonotic #viruses in urban settings! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40318358/ Great work by @karatasmustafa.bsky.social in collaboration with @marcvanranst.bsky.social @wollants.bsky.social @stevenvangucht.bsky.social
🎉🎉 Happy to share our new paper! 🎉🎉 Have you ever wondered about the animal viruses living right alongside us in our cities? Between our pets at home, rats in the sewers, pigeons on the streets, insects everywhere, and even farm animals nearby, it’s no surprise +++
Clinical translation of microbiome research www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microbiome
Clinical translation of microbiome research - Nature Medicine
This Review summarizes recent and compelling examples of microbiome-based interventions that are ripe for clinical adoption while also discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the field.
nature.com
To answer their study question on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on rotavirus infections in Belgium, @karatasmustafa.bsky.social et al. used data collected 10 years before, 2 years during, and 2 years after the pandemic #IDsky #EpiSky 🦠 👇🏽
Jelle Matthijnssens @jellematthijnssens.bsky.social · last yr.🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 How did the #COVID_19 pandemic impact #rotavirus epidemiology in Belgium? Read all about it in our latest paper in @Eurosurveillanc: eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2... @karatasmustafa.bsky.social @vanranstmarc.bsky.social @wollants.bsky.social
📢 Excited to share the first paper of my PhD: 14 years of rotavirus epidemiology in Belgium! Read the full story on Eurosurveillance: @eurosurveillance.org 👉 www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2... #Rotavirus #Virology #PublicHealth #Epidemiology #EpiSky #IDsky Key messages -->
Eurosurveillance journal@eurosurveillance.org · last yr.To answer their study question on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on rotavirus infections in Belgium, @karatasmustafa.bsky.social et al. used data collected 10 years before, 2 years during, and 2 years after the pandemic #IDsky #EpiSky 🦠 👇🏽
🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 How did the #COVID_19 pandemic impact #rotavirus epidemiology in Belgium? Read all about it in our latest paper in @Eurosurveillanc: eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2... @karatasmustafa.bsky.social @vanranstmarc.bsky.social @wollants.bsky.social
14 years of rotavirus A surveillance: unusual dominance of equine-like G3P[8] genotype with DS-1-like genotype constellation after the pandemic, Belgium, 2009 to 2023
Introduction Despite vaccine availability, rotavirus persists as a leading cause of gastroenteritis in children younger than 5 years. Aim We aimed to evaluate temporal changes in rotavirus epidemiolog...
eurosurveillance.org
New study: analysing indoor air to detect outbreaks. “… Air sampling could provide sensitive, responsive #epidemiology indicators for surveillance of respiratory pathogens…” See thread for details and previous air sampling work with @emmanuel-microb.bsky.social… #IDEpi #IDsky #PedsID #KULeuven 🛟
New #kuleuven study: indoor air sampling to monitor respiratory infections in childcare settings. 🧒🏽🏫 Key findings: 🔬 Sensitive pathogen detection 🌬️ Correlation with CO2 & infection rates 📈 Early outbreak warnings 👇 www.thelancet.com/journals/ebi... #PublicHealth #Epidemiology #RespiratoryInfections
Interpretation of indoor air surveillance for respiratory infections: a prospective longitudinal observational study in a childcare setting
Our results suggest that air sampling could provide sensitive, responsive epidemiological indicators for the surveillance of respiratory pathogens. Using air CO2 concentrations to normalise such signa...
thelancet.com
2️⃣ Metagenomics can find unexpected viruses in air. Also viruses associated with skin infections or gastroenteritis. More in this preprint with the Rega Institute’s Viral Metagenomics Lab: @karatasmustafa.bsky.social , @jellematthijnssens.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Untargeted viral metagenomics of indoor air as a novel surveillance tool for respiratory, enteric and skin viruses
Conventional hospital-based infectious disease surveillance struggles to detect mild or asymptomatic infections and incurs high costs for large-scale testing during outbreaks. In contrast, environment...
medrxiv.org
Happy to share my first post here! Feel free to look at our preprint, which is currently under review (with constructive and encouraging comments from reviewers!). We performed viral metagenomics to track viruses in the indoor air of a daycare center: Our findings... (see the next post!)-->
medRxivpreprint@medrxivpreprint.bsky.social · 2y agoUntargeted viral metagenomics of indoor air as a novel surveillance tool for respiratory, enteric and skin viruses https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.11.24315306v1